Normal (2025)

An interim sheriff arrives in the snowy town of Normal, Minnesota following the death of the previous sheriff. It's a small town full of idiosyncrasies and secrets, not unlike their neighbors in Fargo, North Dakota. It goes without saying it's a charming, violent action-comedy from the creator of Nobody and the John Wick franchise, that is not at all what it appears to be at first glance.

3 squeaky leather jackets out of 5

HIGH-RISE [2015]

To date director Ben Wheatley hasn't made a film that is easily digestible for the average viewer and he's not about to start with his adaptation of novelist J.G. Ballard's satirical pre-Thatcher warning High-Rise.
Set in the 70's, a doctor moves into a chic Mega City-esque apartment building (looking as if it were frozen on the brink of collapse) built to provide it's residents with everything they need in order to never leave, which eventually leads to a clash of the classes.
A not-so subtle paranoid dissection of human stratification, High-Rise is wickedly funny, darkly surreal and generates the same sort of intimate coldness David Cronenberg mastered.  There's some pacing issues and it isn't quite as fascinating as it wants to be but Tom Hiddleston's performance and Wheatley's eye for stark beauty is more than enough to keep your eyes glued to the screen.

3 unhappy bunnies bouncing about out of 5

A FIELD IN ENGLAND [2013]

Director Ben Wheatley's Sightseers and Kill List were whacked out genre-hopping films, so I should have expected A Field In England to one up those in the completely crazed "what the fuck" department.
Imagine a black & white 17th century English Civil War film told like a 1960's arthouse flick, then drenched in a heavy dose of mind-warping awkwardness & feverish psychedelia and you get a faint idea of what this bizarre little piece of cinema is all about.
Wheatley paints his films with a gleefully grotesque cynical view of the world and this one is his boldest yet.  I'm more than certain it's going to force viewers to scratch their heads till they bleed and occasionally that hurts the enjoyment of the film, as the actors don't seem to entirely understand what they're doing either.

3 shitty treasures out of 5

KILL LIST [2011]

Ben Wheatley makes interesting films that are unlike most movies we see these days.  They're unpredictably dark, weird and filled with a hauntingly thick air of mystery.
His crime-drama/horror film Kill List is the perfect example of that.
The average viewer will find its slow-burning twists & turns frustrating but with a bit of patience you'll be rewarded with a hypnotizing and incredibly disturbing thriller with some wonderful performances.  I winced in several of the more brutal scenes and found myself with my jaw on the floor exclaiming out loud "what the fuck?" during the final half hour.

4 bunny innard surprises out of 5

SIGHTSEERS [2012]

I've seen a lot of odd movies over the years but Kill List director Ben Wheatley's black romantic drama Sightseers is a whole new breed of odd I'm not familiar with.
It's a nightmarish little character piece, but with Edgar Wright serving as executive producer we get plenty of brutal murders and a rather unsettling sense of humour that is more disturbing than laugh out loud funny.  At first I wasn't sure what to think of this weird little gem but given some thought I found it to be wonderfully acted and so uniquely spun it becomes one of those films that is sure to boggle most viewer's minds.  Weird...just weird.

3 big pencils out of 5

THE ABC'S OF DEATH [2013]

The ABC's Of Death is a collection of short segments by a variety of genre directors & film mediums from all over the world, including Ti West, Angela Bettis, Xavier Gens, Jake West, Adam Wingard & more.

Each segment is assigned a letter of the alphabet that features a death that must relate to it.  In a way it reminded me of the teaser intros to Six Feet Under, as I tried to guess how each death was going to play out in the often bizarre scenario. The quality of each segment ranges from great to terrible but never really seems to hurt the sickening enjoyment of it all.  They're wildly funny, immensely disturbing and sometimes excruciatingly disgusting.  It's not high art but packs in enough squeamish laughter to please horror film nuts for an evening.

2½ letter blocks in blood out of 5